Toni's Surrogacy Journey My Battle For My Boy

With baby almost here, the bubbly broadcaster is so grateful to be well again

With less than a month to go before Toni Street welcomes her miracle third baby into the world, excitement levels at her Auckland home are at fever pitch.

While the broadcaster, whose little boy is being carried by a surrogate, doesn’t have a baby bump for her two daughters to bond with, it makes no difference at all to these doting big sisters.

“He’ll be in here in four weeks,” announces five-year-old Juliette as she and her little sister Mackenzie, three, proudly show Woman’s Day into an immaculately decorated nursery. Stars and animal prints adorn the walls, and the changing table is stacked with tiny nappies and muslin cloths. But it’s in the wardrobe where the most attention has been spent – adorable knitted cardigans hang in a row, piles of perfectly folded onesies sit on the shelves and tiny sneakers wait for this precious little boy.

“It’s been such a novelty to buy blue things,” the broadcasting star smiles, before showing us into her and husband Matt France’s bedroom, where a bassinet is set up next to Toni’s side of the bed. “Even though I don’t have the pregnancy hormones, I am definitely in that nesting phase. I just want to clean and organise, and get everything perfect before he arrives.”

A beaming Toni tells us she still can’t quite believe the amazing turn her life has taken. After being told her health problems meant she’d be unable to have the third child she’d always dreamed of, her best friend Sophie Braggins stepped in and offered to be a surrogate.

“I still have to pinch myself that it’s really happening – we’re having a little boy and that Sophie really is our surrogate! Sometimes it feels like it’s too good to be true.”

Health crisis